2 Razors

Maybe Roland Emmerich should stick to disaster movies

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Anonymous
  • IMDB: link

anonymous-posterDid William Shakespeare write the plays and collected works attributed to him, or is someone else responsible? In an age where conspiracy theories are more popular than reality-TV shows director Roland Emmerich and writer John Orloff not only ask but offer an answer that question.

Anonymous follows the train of thought that Elizabethan aristocrat, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), is the real author to Shakespeare’s works. Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) himself? Well, if you buy into this version, he was an uneducated dullard and bumbling actor with barely enough brains to take credit for another’s work.

Emmerich and Orloff aren’t the first to raise the question of Shakespeare’s authorship, but the case they make here involving vast conspiracies, secrets of the royal family, and a super-secret plan of succession to the throne of England come off more like bad soap opera than tragic drama. Their attempt to devalue Shakespeare further by portraying him as a angry buffoon doesn’t help their argument.

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Maybe Roland Emmerich should stick to disaster movies Read More »

Secret Avengers #17

/ / Comics

secret-avengers-17-coverAlthough I liked the makeup of the team I had given up on Secret Avengers as a regular monthly title during their John Steele story arc. Over the first dozen issue the comic was very hit-and-miss for me and appeared to be still struggling to find itself. And I was pretty sure three straight months of Fear Itself tie-ins wasn’t going to help.

However, last month writer Warren Ellis took over the title and I decided to give it another shot. I so impressed I picked this issue up without even reading it before I got home. That was a big, big mistake.

The storyline is the kind of odd story Ellis is known for that could (and probably was) a Authority tale he never got to tell. Steve Rogers, Agent 13, War Machine (but can we really still call him that without the shoulder cannon?), and Valkyrie head off to Eastern Europe where entire villages are disappearing. What they discover is a giant demon truck traveling across the landscape with a zombie cyborg at the wheel. Sadly, it’s not as good as it sounds.

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Secret Avengers #17 Read More »

Jane Eyre

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Jane Eyre
  • IMDB: link

jane-eyre-dvdCharlotte Brontë‘s novel has been adapted to film more than a dozen times over the years. In the latest, by director Cary Fukunaga and screenwriter Moira Buffini, Mia Wasikowska stars as the title character Jane Eyre, an orphaned child turned governess and teacher, who struggles to find her place in the world.

Bronte’s protagonist has long been heralded as the world’s first feminist hero. Jane overcomes (a seemingly never-ending list of) struggles and unhappiness over the course of the tale and battles to stand on her own two feet and only then to embrace love on her terms.

The film jumps between three different timelines in Jane’s life including her life as a child (played by Amelia Clarkson) in her aunt’s house and later at boarding school, her time as the governess at Thornfield Hall for Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender), and her months with the Rivers family (Jamie Bell, Tamzin Merchant, Holliday Grainger) as a teacher at a country school.

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Batgirl #1

/ / Comics

batgirl-1-coverOf all the comics slated for the DC Reboot Barbara Gordon‘s return as Batgirl created the most heated debate. DC was cancelling Stephanie Brown‘s popular version of the character in favor of putting Barbara back in the Batsuit for the first time since 1988 when the character was paralyzed by the Joker in Alan Moore‘s Batman: The Killing Joke.

Forgetting for the second that this first issue is far inferior to Bryan Q. Miller’s stellar Batgirl run, and the debate whether or not Barbara Gordon is a more intriguing character as Oracle rather than Batgirl (the answer is Oracle, by the way), this first issue has a great many problems.

I love writer Gail Simone, I’d just rather see her penning Secret Six. The writing her feels rushed, Barbara Gordon’s paralysis is fixed by a “miracle” off-panel, and her time as Oracle isn’t even hinted at (did it even occur in this vesrion of the DCU?). The villain of the piece (who basically appears to be some guy who has seen Final Destination way, way too many times) is also troubling. And don’t even get me started on the costume that looks like someone spray-painted Witchblade.

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Detective Comics #1

/ / Comics

Before the DC Reboot writer Scott Snyder was penning a strong arc in the final issues of Detective Comics about James Gordon Jr. and the relationships of the Gordon family with the Bat-Family. Tony Daniel takes over the writing duties here as part of DC’s “New 52,” and if this issue foreshadows one hellova bumpy ride.

The first problem is the issue never tells us when it takes place. Is it at the beginning of the New 52 with Action Comics and Justice League, is it in the current timeline with most of the other #1’s, or does it take place sometime in-between?

The comic focuses on Batman‘s attempt to capture the Joker, but it’s unclear how many times Batman and the Joker have met. Is this their first meeting, their tenth, one-hundredth? The comic isn’t sure, so how can the reader be?

Even with these issues the first issue may not be good but it is, for the most part passable, – at least until the gruesome final panel. In an attempt to give us a gritty Batman story Daniel gives us the face of one of Batman’s villains nailed to a wall. This one’s best forgotten. Pass.

[DC, $2.99]

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